Happy December! My Writing Year in Review

Wow, is it December? This year has been both extremely long and also gone in the blink of an eye.

If you're a person who nominates for awards and things, may I direct you to my Awards Eligibility post?

So, how was my writing year?  Pretty amazing, actually. Even not including my Patreon, I've had more stories published this year than I have to date, with three already out, one of which is in a pro market, and the final one forthcoming on Boxing Day. I've also had one more acceptance (so far!). Contract forthcoming, so I'll announce more when I can.

Though speaking of that pro market...."Surveillance Fatigue", published in Escape Pod, qualified me to become an Associate member of the SFWA.....so I applied and was accepted!  It has also made me Campbell eligible and every time I mention that I realize I should look into it further but, here we are. I also joined the Science Fiction Writers Codex

It's December and we have no snow

Despite my comments to the contrary, I ended up doing NaNoWriMo.

I started my novel on November 18, and in fact made the 50,000 mark. On the 30th, in fact, writing 8600 words that day.

It's a draft I'm so far happy with. Space science fiction,  near-ish future. Per my usual NaNoWriMo habits, it's currently "trunked", pending finishing at a later date. It doesn't have a title. It has a lot of plot kinks to work out. But the bones are there, and that's pretty cool.

 

A lesson in reading labels

So, I've given up soda, yet again. But I'd been reading some on artificial sweeteners, and was becoming increasingly alarmed. And drinking diet soda had clearly not been doing me any favors on the weight front. So. Cold turkey, no soda, diet or otherwise. I've done this a few times now (and even talked about it here at least once); maybe this time it'll stick. I've been drinking coffee (with milk and cocoa in it) and tea and lots and lots of water.

So. We have an iced tea maker I got at Wal-Mart for like ten bucks, which is a quick and fabulous way to have readily drinkable tea in the house. Typically we go for green tea, and then I'll use like, three bags of green tea and one of chai, or two green two Earl Grey, that kind of thing. We ran out of our regular green (though there is some in a multipack we have, now that I think about it) and so I got a new box (also at Wal-Mart, ugh) the other night. I guess I didn't really read the box (mostly because my misanthropy is such that by the time I make it to the tea in Wal-Mart, it is only through sheer strength of will that I don't lose my shit). I was doing some dishes, and making a cup of coffee, and I turned around when I heard the tea maker stop dripping because I was going to unplug it and was like "OH MY GOD, BLOOD TEA!"

Only the dog was awake to share my dismay. She was more concerned with her rhino. I would be too; I just spent some time down the rabbit hole of international rhino horn sales. But that is a post for another day.

As it turns out, the tea is strawberry orange green tea, not just green tea. Red antioxidant green tea, which is made with hibiscus and rooibos and stuff. So, all right. But that was kind of a bad surprise. Read the labels, kids, or else you too might end up with blood tea.

My first "publication": on Dogster.com

I have my first publication!

Well, kind of. On Dogster.com, they accept reader confessionals for a section called Dogster confessionals. I'd emailed awhile back (November?) to see the kind of thing they looked for in that spot, and then mulled it over for awhile. I was surprised to receive a follow up email (or two!) asking if I had anything for them. Okay, surprised and flattered. Really flattered.

So, I came up with a little number that they entitled (because I didn't really have a title) "I'm Not Hearing Voices: My Dog Talks To Me".  It was fun to write, as writing about Elka mostly is. I'm not a great photographer, but having a striking dog makes up for that fact, so I did have some good ones that I was able to include. There's even a video they embedded from The Elka Almanac Youtube channel, of her playing in the snow (don't get too excited; she is very cute, but if I'm a bad photographer, I'm not all that great a videographer either. If that's even a word. Blogger doesn't think it is, but also has trouble with things like "isn't" at times.)

So, if you read it, hope you enjoy! I'm fairly chuffed to have the coverage, anyway.

 

(This is Elka's "Did you just see that?!" and/or "Wasn't that great?!" face)

In the News: November 2, 2011

Just a few news articles that piqued my interest and seemed really cool, whether they're true or false.


'Magic' Viking Sunstone Just Natural Crystal: the dismissive tone in part of this article bemuses me. Even if it was "just" natural crystal and not "magic", it was still pretty brilliant.

Scientists Claim to Have Discovered Cold Fusion: Yeah, we've been here before. But, with video. Cold fusion! Who cares if it's true! (well, actually, I think it would be rad if it was. I have a distinct dislike of nuclear meltdowns)

Reformed Skinhead and his tattoo removal (sorry some of these are Yahoo news, it's just where I saw them first): this seems like how I would have preferred American History X to have ended. The guy even talks a bit like Edward Norton.

Chernobyl Liquidators : Pretty self explanatory.

And, for the heck of it, my Doberman, Elka: